Fmr. Federal Prosecutor: If Putin Penthouse Report is True, Trump’s Moscow Project ‘Filled With Potential Illegalities’
Former federal prosecutor and MSNBC contributor Joyce Vance said that if Michael Cohen‘s testimony confirms reports about Donald Trump‘s efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, it could spell new legal troubles for the president.
MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle spoke to Vance on Friday about Cohen’s his plea deal and cooperation with special counsel Robert Mueller. When Vance was asked if she sees new legal problems for the president, she pointed to the report saying the Trump Organization discussed gifting Vladimir Putin a lavish multi-million dollar penthouse if Trump Tower Moscow came to fruition.
“There’s a lot of potential illegality here,” Vance said. “There’s a law in this country – the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act – that makes it illegal to pay a bribe to someone in a foreign country to facilitate your business dealings.”
Ruhle and Vance acknowledged that the issue is murky since the construction deal was abandoned in the end, even if Cohen lied to Congress about how long negotiations were taking place. Even so, Vance said Mueller knows a lot more than the public does about Trump’s dealings at this point, and there are other legal complications that could be in play now.
“It can also be illegal to enter into a conspiracy to do something that you don’t actually do,” she said. “It can even be illegal to make an attempt in certain circumstances, and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has a provision like that.”
Watch above, via MSNBC.
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